With the College Football Playoff selection committee to release its final Top 25 ranking on Dec. 4 and the North American sports industry pulling in more than $60 billion annually, the personal-finance website WalletHub took an in-depth look at 2016’s Best Sports Cities.
To determine the cities where the game is always on regardless of season, WalletHub compared 423 small to large cities across more than 50 key metrics. The data set ranges from “performance level of the city’s team(s)” to “average ticket price per game.”
| Best Large Sports Cities | Best Midsize Sports Cities | Best Small Sports Cities | ||||||
| 1 | New York, NY | 1 | Green Bay, WI | 1 | Clemson, SC | |||
| 2 | Boston, MA | 2 | Cincinnati, OH | 2 | East Lansing, MI | |||
| 3 | Pittsburgh, PA | 3 | Orlando, FL | 3 | Tuscaloosa, AL | |||
| 4 | Los Angeles, CA | 4 | Buffalo, NY | 4 | Chapel Hill, NC | |||
| 5 | Chicago, IL | 5 | Baton Rouge, LA | 5 | State College, PA | |||
| 6 | Philadelphia, PA | 6 | Durham, NC | 6 | Conway, SC | |||
| 7 | Washington, DC | 7 | Charleston, SC | 7 | Princeton, NJ | |||
| 8 | Detroit, MI | 8 | Eugene, OR | 8 | Williamsburg, VA | |||
| 9 | St. Louis, MO | 9 | Dayton, OH | 9 | Hanover, NH | |||
| 10 | Denver, CO | 10 | Salt Lake City, UT | 10 | DeKalb, IL | |||
Best vs. Worst
- Stillwater, Okla., has one of the highest minimum season-ticket prices for a college football (FBS and FCS) game, $400, which is 16 times higher than in East Lansing, Mich., the city with the lowest, $25.
- New York has the highest average ticket price for an NBA game, $97.77, which is 3.2 times higher than in New Orleans, the city with the lowest, $30.20.
- NHL fans in Pittsburgh are 27 times friendlier and more engaged than their New York counterparts.
- Dallas has the highest NFL popularity-index rank, whereas Jacksonville, Fla., has the lowest.
- Boston has the highest average MLB season-ticket price, $54.79, which is three times higher than in Phoenix, the city with the lowest, $18.53.
- San Jose, Calif., has the highest attendance rate for MLS games, which is 2.3 times higher than in Orlando, Fla., the city with the lowest.
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